I was working on this post and got interrupted...just now realized I never posted it...so here you go!

Some pics for the fans....

Kale still is not fond of Santa! See how he is gripping his daddy's coat?

Cousin Fletcher...such a cutie pie and growing up way to fast!

Chillin' at the lunch table

Examining his favorite present...his very own cell phone.

Ep asked him what he had...and he was excited to show him the cell phone!

I warned you...

Well, see, I warned you. I knew I wasn't going to get much posted this past week.

Here are the highlights and I will try to come back and fill in the missing parts of any stories and I will add pictures later as well:

1. Kale cried, whined, or yelled the ENTIRE trip to Alma on Christmas Eve. We ate dinner with my parents and then turned our wagon north. It was only an hour drive and our little man was tired. Surely a nap was in the works. Oh yes...all 20 minutes of it and then we were back to whining...
2. Christmas morning came and went like a flash. It included a Christmas breakfast and then present opening. Well, for Kale, it was more like present "presenting" because he hasn't yet figured out how to open gifts. In fact, his gifts sat in Christmas sacks in plain view all week and he never bothered them. No tissue paper hiding them or anything. His aunt Wendi and uncle Brian rocked our parental world but putting together his sit-n-spin (more on that later), lawnmower, and vacuum. Then, Wendi made a very justifiable observation...we are preparing our kid to work. We even gave him a cell phone to keep him available at all times! Well, we gave him a pretend cell phone. He already had some toy ones, but none were as real looking as this one. He loved his celly! Later, we really rocked his world because he was given not one but two real cell phones that are no longer assigned a working number (yes, we know that he can use them to call 911 and are just hoping that he doesn't). So yes, our son managed to score one fake and two real cell phones for Christmas at the ripe age of one!
3. We had our traditional Christmas lunch at the Clarion in Fayetteville. Nothing like enjoying the fact that NOBODY has to cook! Ok, like I cook anything...but well, I figure the cooks in the family are elated that they don't have to cook. After playing musical rooms and a few other issues, all was well until some guy in charge tried to get us to hurry up and leave. He didn't get us seated until 30 minutes after our reservation and then tried to kick us out about an hour later. He kept saying that there was another family waiting to eat at 1:30pm and he needed the room. Mind you, we are still eating our dessert! We didn't get in a hurry. I don't think I am making a wild assumption to say that we won't be giving them our business in the future...
4. Friday...I got up and did some post holiday deal shopping. I got some really good deals, but nothing to brag about. Then, after lunch we headed back to Alma. Yep, you guessed it...more whining from the back seat. Thankfully, its only an hour trip.
5. Friday night was dinner with my parents, Chris, and his girlfriend. We all crammed into a six seater booth at Outback and had Kale bringing up the end of the table in a high chair. Then Chris disapeared back to his girlfriend's house about an hour away and we didn't see him the rest of the weekend. The highlight of the night was when he announced that he was going to start driving the patrol car on his Sunday (tonight) shift. I taught Chris to drive in parking lots before he was 14 and he has been driving pretty much since that age. So, we all had a good laugh when my mom blurted out "YOU are going to drive a car?" or maybe it was "they are going to let YOU drive a car?". It wasn't so much that she was baffled that he was going to drive a car as thats no biggie...but the idea of her son driving a patrol car just completely befuddled her. I can't blame her...it still cracks me up to think of my brother being a cop and driving a patrol car. It just seems a little surreal. We know he is capable...but its still mind boggling that he is old enough and responsible enough to do that!
6. My family didn't not exchange gifts this year...it took the stress off everybody.
7. Saturday was breakfast at Cracker Barrell and then we waited for the storms. They weren't as bad as the weather men said they would be. But, it went from being nearly 70 to around 30 in one afternoon.
8. Saturday afternoon found Ep going to the Razorback game with his dad and retrieving my iPhone charger and one of Kale's three cell phones. We managed to leave both at thier house. I suppose it something along the lines of like mother, like son. While Ep was away, Kale and I went to raid Wal-Mart with Mema Nana. We needed two carts for all the stuff.
9. On Saturday night, Ep and I went out on the town...we met up with Robin and Justin and some other folks and found out that the service at Varsity in Fort Smith absolutely without a doubt is some of the most awful food service you can get anywhere. You know its bad when people start calling over the manager to dispute having to pay a tip because we were a group. At one point, every single glass on the table was empty for well over 20 minutes. Then, every check that our waiter brought to us was wrong. Justin finally gave up and just paid both thier check and ours...
10. Sunday...I went for some deals at Wal-Mart and Walgreens. By the time I got back, Ep and my dad had brought home Chinese food. After lunch, we loaded up and headed back to Little Rock. And yes, the whining began. However, I chose a better placement of his toys...so that helped some! Kale was soooo tired. We thought for sure that by 20 minutes down the road that he would be zonked. He didn't get that memo. He finally passed out about an hour later. Between a bottle and then Ep rolling down his window enough to give him the white noise affect...whew...he slept.
11. We got home and unloaded and proceeded to see how many injuries we could give our son during the few hours we have had him alone for the past five days. He hadn't been in the house for two minutes before he attempted to give himself a black eye...and may have given himself a partial one. The end table got him. I was sure that he was going to somehow injure himself on the sit-n-spin (which I requested, by the way) because he doesn't begin to come close to being able to sit-n-spin, even with assistance. His little booty just plops right off about 1/4 of a spin around. BUT, he does know how to stand with both hands on the stationary part and plant one foot on the carpet and the other foot on the spinning part. Oh yea. So far, he only goes about 6 inches one way and then 6 inches back the other way. I wouldn't be suprised if he is going all the way around by the end of the week. Then he stole my pizza...it was a choice...either let him grab the slice or my plate with ranch was going to fly across the living room. He must have been worried I would try to take the pizza back because he promptly threw it on the floor, walked on it, carried it around the room picking it apart (yes, on carpet), and even managed to get pizza sauce on his new sleeping bag. Lovely. We eventually got him ready for bed and were in the process of getting our bed cleaned off (from an unpacked suitcase). Kale and Ep were on the bed. Kale gave his daddy the business! First he smacked him in the groin and then he bit him square on the bridge of his nose. As Ep writhed in pain and yelped, Kale must have feared some sort of retaliation and went into the roll evacuation plan... and proceeded to roll his little self right off the bed. I am quite certain that Ep flew at that point. I had my back to them but turned when I hard the ka-thump of Kale hitting the floor. All I saw was Ep's butt bouncing off the bed while the rest of his body was completely airborn. I am not exaggerating here. After a good examination and Kale wanting to play, play, play... we deemed him as fine and went on with our night.

Now, here I sit... typing the longest update ever ...and its the short version. Its 11pm and I return to my desk tomorrow from being out of the office for 10 days.... I better go to bed.

Merry Christmas

Not sure how much time I am going to have between now and Christmas to update...so this will have to get everyone by...so....

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Therapy

Got this in an email this morning and wanted to share...I have seen a few of these in a list before, but there were some new ones as well. Figured we could all use a smile or giggle today....

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice!
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.
5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write ' For Marijuana.
6. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.
7 Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
8. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go'.
9. Sing Along At The Opera.
10. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You have a headache.
11. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'
12. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling 'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'
13. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.'

And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity

14. PICK UP A BOX OF CONDOMS AT THE PHARMACY, GO TO THE COUNTER AND ASK WERE THE FITTING ROOM IS.

Have a happy Friday!!!!!

YEA! Way to go Chris!!!!!

My brother gets his own post today. I am sooooo proud of him. We all are! For many years, Chris has been working towards his dream of being a police officer. The road has taken him to various police departments to work as a dispatcher, and the most recent of these was at the Fort Smith Police Department. When some officer positions became open, he applied. He passed one test after another and waited. And then he waited some more. He thought he had been one of the seven chosen, and he was, but the budget only allowed them to hire six. What a roller coaster, right? Well, they told him that if any officers retire, quit, or get fired then he would be first in line for that job. They told him to expect something to happen next spring. So, the waiting began again. He took it all in stride.
Yesterday, he got a phone call. One of the six has decided not to take the position and you are in...come get your police identification and some other stuff...and report to the shooting range to get certified in the morning. Somewhere in all that, he will get sworn in...and poof, my brother is a certified police officer! Wow!
I am so proud of him. He didn't give up. He faced adversity several times and still didn't quit! So today, he begins living the first day of knowing what its like to chase a big dream and achieve it!
Wow...my brother is a police man....that is going to take a little bit to sink in! :) If you are ever in Fort Smith and run into Officer George...be nice to him! Wow...Officer George...weird!

Frozen

Well, I am not sure if we got freezing rain, sleet, freezing fog, or just a mixture of all that....but whatever it was that fell last night has frozen central Arkansas--literally. You could ice skate on our back deck. The streets at our house are fine, but apparently they aren't so great everywhere else because Ep just called to say the roads are terrible. That would be why they cancelled every school within a 50 mile radius, closed federal and state offices, and most businesses are not opening until at least 10am. But, oh no...of my husband went. I am pretty sure he is in inclement weather denial. At least he waited until almost 9am to head out. Please pray for him today....the roads are awful and I am sure I won't be the only one worrying about him.

For the record, my office closes for bad weather when the Little Rock public schools close. Additionally, if the Little Rock schools don't close, but my local district does (Pulaski County), then I can stay home as well. Pretty nice policy if you ask me! So, I am home today.

In anticipation of being home today, I had Ep catch the Christmas tree box as I slid it down from the attic. The Christmas tree is now up and I have to figure out why on set of pre-lit lights aren't lighting up. Probably a fuse...that will be fun. Aritificial trees irritate my skin... I get red marks wherever it touches me.... so digging in the tree to find the right plug that needs a fuse should leave me looking like I have been in a cat fight!

I think I might do some online Christmas shopping today...perfect day for it! Of course, all while keeping an eye on the toilet paper bandit....who by the way is saying his own version of thank you. At least he is a polite toilet paper bandit! :)

It was a weekend

The weekend is over and the week has begun...

Weekend accomplishments: painted 2/3 of what needed to be painted in the garage, took mom to get her suburban and met my brother's girlfriend, ordered some gifts, won some ebay auctions, spent some snuggle time with Kale, think we got shafted by neighbor boys cleaning our yard, and had date night with Ep.

So far today, I forgot Kale had an appt to get a shot--a shot that he has to receive within 28-30 days of the last one he received. So, now he gets to go get it on Wednesday.

We are also MAYBE getting some ice...yuck. However, I need not fear, as Ep has kept me very aware of the latest forcast--I think he was giving 15 minute updates last night. I wore my snow/ice boots today, just in case.

I think thats it, but again, its only Monday morning...

Deals, Deals, Deals

Ok, I can't stand it any longer...I have been getting some deals this week.

Target has been shining bright while Walgreens has been doing time on skid row and is about to get yet another "sentencing" from me. I am either going to become friends with the Walgreens district manager or he is going to eternally hate me...its his choice, because I am not going away.

I went to Target yesterday to pick up some stuff for the ACH toy drive. My total before coupons was around $144 and I walked out paying $68 after coupons. I didn't have coupons for the toys, Ep's gift, and a couple of other things. BUT, I got free batteries (AA and AAA) galore, 3 free smell good candle looking things for the house, 2 free boxes of cereal, a free box of Kashi bars, and some free trial sizes of shampoo, conditioner, and detergent.

I donated a bunch of the batteries to ACH with the toys I donated. Kale went with me...we had a good time. He met some of my facebook friends from the local radio station and got his picture taken and such....he was his usual little celebrity self. That orange (its really not red) hair is going to bring him more attention than I could have ever dreamed. But hey...if the world wants to love on my son...have at it...just don't hurt him...OR ELSE!

If anyone is interested in free batteries...let me know...all it takes is a coupon that I can send to you (pdf document) and a Target $1 spot at your local Target.

Happy Friday....

Shoes

Kale HATES shoes. There, did you get that point?

When I was pregnant, I read somewhere that you should wait until your child is walking before introducing shoes. The book said that it would help thier feet develop properly and that learning to walk would be easier. Here is what the book didn't say. If you let your child go barefoot all summer and then try to introduce him to shoes, he will outright refuse them.

We bought him a pair of Crocs because he has wide fat feet. You can't get the second shoe even halfway on before he already has the other one off and most times is already working on taking off his sock. We bought him a pair of neoprene backed Crocs...those came off way faster than I could even put them on him....and so did his socks.

God blessed me during the Duck Duck Goose sale this fall. I came across a pair fo barely used Stride Rite shoes in size 5.5 wide. Kale was a shoe size 4 at that time. I was hoping that by the time we got to size 5.5 he would have decided that shoes were not the devil. He didn't get that memo. These shoes fit him now but he still hates shoes. HOWEVER, since they velcro shut and he has not figured out velcro just yet...IF you can get them on and velcroed...you are golden! That is a big fat IF though. See, when you try to put his foot in the shoe, he automatically curls up his toes. Ever try to put a fat wide foot with curled up toes into a shoe and get it velcroed...especially when that foot belongs to a rambunctios 13 month old boy? Let me tell you, its a workout! Seriously, it will make you sweat! I have done that workout twice in the last few days. Once I got those suckers on him, they stayed on for several hours.

Kale also forgets that he can still walk in shoes. It takes him a bit before he "remembers" that he can still walk around even though he now has on clunky shoes (and I am sure that is what he could call them). But once he remembers...look out...here he comes. And, if he could talk, he would be asking you to please take off his shoes!!!!

I have already started looking for his next pair of shoes...anybody priced a pair of Stride Rite toddler shoes lately? Um...$50 a pair! Since we need wide shoes, we may be forced into buying Stride Rite for a while...but that doesn't mean I won't be looking for other brands that carry a wide in toddler sizes!!!

If you're happy and you know it...

Its been a little hectic around our house lately. Kale's ability to walk has just exploded. It won't be long before he loses his waddle and shows us how he can run...its just a matter of time. He can walk the entire length of our house, turn around, and go somewhere else without falling. He proves this when he can't find one of us and tries to track us down. If you disapear for a potty break and don't shut the door, then don't expect much privacy! He will find you!

Kale has learned how to clap and its usually not random. He claps for himself when he is happy, excited, or is praised. He claps when you sing "If your happy and you know it...", which he learned by watching his baby Einstein video. Its pretty cute when you spontaneously start singing that song and he starts clapping. When you get to the part about stomping your feet, he just shakes his head no...which is really cute as well. :)

Kale has forgotten how to sleep well at night. Its catching up with him. He tosses and turns all night...cries out...just acts not quite comfortable or relaxed. We don't know why. Ep thinks he is cutting another tooth, but I haven't found any new ones just yet. He bites me at least once a day...

Here is a pic of Kale with the beloved remote control. There are three things in our house that he constantly seeks (besides us). They are the tv remotes, cell phones, and computer keyboard. Most of the time, those things are out of his reach. We had to replace our DirecTv unit last week and as Ep worked on the new one, he gave Kale the battery-less remote to the old unit. Kale pretty much pranced with it! He took it all over the house and was soooo proud and then would stop to look and make sure he was really, really getting to hold the remote! Can you tell he was happy?

Christmas is coming...and our house is about to be decorated in a flurry of activity. Normally, I am bugging Ep to let me put out Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving has even arrived. Not this year. We are working on it though...

I tried to get Kale to let me take some Christmas pics. They didn't turn out as well as I had hoped and he confirmed that he has no idea what the heck I mean when I tell him to sit still for just a second. LOL! Some of the better ones...

Couponing...

Well, everyone who knows me should know by now that I love to find a bargain! I am competitive and my competition is the store...my goal is to see how much I can save. In the long run, for every coupon I use, the store is reimbursed for the coupon PLUS they make .08 for each coupon they accept. So, everyone wins! :)

Last Thursday, I asked my loving husband to take me to Walgreens on the way to Thanksgiving lunch. In all honesty, I had a prescription to pick up, but turns out their pharmacy was closed at that store. I wasn't bummed though...because I had coupons to use...and oh boy did I get a deal!

Here is the summary:

1 can enfamil next step = $11.99
6 cans of gillette shave gel = $16.74
20 schick intuition razors = $79.80
1 dial trial size body wash = $.99
1 bottle Mr Clean = $3.29
1 $25 BabyGap gift card = $25

Total before coupons = $137.81
Minus 6 Walgreens coupons on the shave gel (-$10.80) = $127.01
Minus 20 $3 Walgreens coupons on the razors (-$60) = $67.01
Minus 20 $3 manufacture coupons on razors (-$60) = $7.01
Minus 1 $1 manufacture coupon on Mr Clean (-$1) = $6.01
and then there is the tax (+ $7.80) = $13.81
I should note that the tax is charged on the total before coupons. Bummer, right?

So...for $13.81 I got all that stuff listed above...do I need to remind you that it included a $25 BabyGap gift card? Don't worry, I already spent it! :)

In reality, I saved more than that...because some of those items are priced on sale...and at the bottom of my receipt it shows what I saved off of the regular prices....

In total, I saved:
$10.80 on the 7 hour coupon
$110 in advertised savings (Walgreens coupons plus sale prices)
$121 in manufacture's coupons
for a whopping total of $241.80 if I had paid full price for those items!

I heart coupons!!!!!!

If you want to know where I get most of my info...check out www.hotcouponworld.com and please know it can be overwhelming at first and very addicting....but after a while it gets much easier!